Fable III

It was after a good 5 hours of play that it suddenly hit me and I smiled... he's done it again. Peter Molyneux did it again. He sold me the same false promise three times! Each time I felt happy when closing the deal but ended up feeling like a victim to an amazing con artist.

You see Fable III much like it's predecessors isn't an amazing game. It isn't an Oblivion, Dragon Age, Fallout or a Mass Effect.
Fable III is at heart an extremely mediocre game, but unlike most mediocre games it hides that fact extremely well under a thick layer of charm. It is that charm that is the real strong suit of the game and it's creator Peter Molyneux. The man is a marketing genius and the "trickery" starts long before the game disc enters your tray. Interviews and developer diaries often starring the man himself show great promise of epic adventure. Both Fable I and II although always entertaining, never fully delivered on the promises made - Fable III being the best or worst example based on your point of view.
If you look past the layers of charm, you end up with a linear series of fetch quests where you follow the trademark glowing trail across the map. Sure there's the option to turn it off but all that does is prolong the search for the right linear path.
Exploration fans need to understand that the game isn't a sandbox game like Oblivion/Fallout or a GTA title, instead it offers an intricate maze of linear paths that often lead to dead ends. There's very little true exploring to be done because both invisible walls and the lack of a jump button keep your freedom of movement well in check.
Another Fable III disappointment is the combat. It uses 3 buttons:
X for melee (hold to block)
B for magic
Y for ranged weapons.
It offers no tactical play whatsoever. In fact if you find yourself surrounded by bandits, go ahead and look away from the screen and frantically start pressing the X,B and Y button while spinning the left stick. You'll come out victorious every single time.
Now, onto the trademark Fable interaction with characters. This requires you to press A to enter the interaction screen. What follows is a random series of interaction options, press the chosen button for a short interaction or hold the button for maximum effect.
There's no reason whatsoever to go for a quicky since holding the button is always the right choice. Also 9/10 times the "whistle" option will get you the best results. Interaction is extremely tedious and a simplified version of Fable II's. After a series of whistles you'll unlock a fetch quest with that character to become friends. What the game boils down to is overly simplified gameplay sugarcoated with that typical Fable humor and charm.
The gameplay feels so simplified it almost makes it feel like the game was targeted at a very young community that is altogether inexperienced at gaming.
The Fable series is one of those that's ranked among 360 heavyweights, not so much because the gameplay is worthy of that but because of it's amazing ability to hide it's mediocrity through topnotch marketing and a slick charm. It's one of those games that has a loyal following that are great fans of it's undeniable charm but unfortunately for me, the charm wore off very quickly, leaving a shell of a game that isn't worth the 40 quid.

Just a few hours in, but I felt I wanted to say something about the offline co-op specifically and first impressions. This time you can import your actual character into your friend's world and it you will look like your character. You share the rewards.

It's not split screen but the view is wide enough to allow both characters some space to run around and fight in without feeling handcuffed together. It's easy to follow what your friend is doing in combat as well as yourself.

There's some turn taking with NPC interactions and what I will call the 'virtual character sheet' (The Sanctuary). Exploring you need to agree on a general route. But if your playing with wife or friends a little patience can be assumed. You both get rewards if one of you opens a chest etc.

It's fun!

So overall a nice offline co-op experience, especially if you're looking for a co-op in the fantasy genre, and have found few workable offerings since the old Baldur's Gate / D&D games. Of course this a different experience, the difference between playing a fantasy novel rather than a persistant battle.

The look of the game seems much polished with really nice environments. It's not Oblivion cross country free-roam but it's looking like it will be a polished high quality journey.

It's probably worth each creating a game before starting offline co-op so your character has a world of their own to go back to (can be done without).

So - overall first impressions. I think this will be a good experience. I didn't enjoy Fable 2 as much as Fable 1, but this is giving back the wow factor a bit and partly I'm reconciled to what Fable is and isn't. They've given better time and thought to those of us who want to play with family and friends offline.

I felt like I had bought an expansion pack on Fable 2 - Not a whole new game.

Lack of new concepts, re-gurgitated the old game and put a different bow on it. Enemies were far too easy to kill. Pointless wolves, boring quests and not much choice to be "goof or bad" hero. It steers you to mainly be a good one. Final battle sequence is just long and boring.

Its alright for a couple days play...but soon gets rapidly dull after two days.

Shame - I was really excited at the idea of this one....and I feel quite let down.

Fable 3 can simply be summed by saying that it is what Fable 2 should have been. The graphics are decent (not the best but far from the worse), the story is enjoyable, there's a certain satisfying simplicity to the game play and the atmosphere is fantastic. You make your own decisions throughout that really do have an impact over the game (far more than others currently out there) and the fact that it is entirely simulated gives you a huge amount of freedom to be your own person and essentially decide how you are going to play, whether as an evil or a good character. Also, the fact that the game is essentially two parts (the first part being your quest to become ruler of Albion and the second part actually being the ruler of Albion) is truly sublime and offers two vastly contrasting elements to the game, that oddly rather complement each other very well, if leaving a slightly disjointed feeling. Other nice touches include simply exploring Albion, a place that has advanced greatly since Fable 2, leaving it now in an industrial era, and this is great fun to experience, especially for all those who played Fable 2 but even for newcomers to the series. Other small improvements include the new maps (a vast improvement on Fable 2) and good on-line. Unlike its predecessor on-line is actually enjoyable in the new game.

There are however some drawbacks, chief among these being the disjointed feel you get from playing the game. Half the time you are running around half naked performing obscene bodily functions and the other half you are skilfully manoeuvring yourself around the current political setting in Albion as you attempt to win supporters to topple your brother, the King. This contradiction leaves the feeling that the game can't make up its mind about what it wants to be but it is possible to overlook this as it doesn't really make the game any less fun to play. Other minor problems are the bugs which include people talking at the same time and strange situations that don't make a lot of sense occurring but these are easy to overlook. Overall a very enjoyable game and one that I will be playing a lot of for the foreseeable future.

We'be been waiting for this game after enjoying Fable and Fable 2. But this game did not meet our expectations at all. It is extremely short - we finished it in 2-3 evenings of Play. It is 100% linear. You have to finish it very quickly, you can't control anything actually. Yes, there are usually two choices good or bad but unlike Fable 1 and 2 it became very linear. There is some pathetic imitation of freedom like side quests but they are all like "deliver this package" or "kill those bandits in the forest". 38 pounds!!! Are you kidding me. I am sure it was first intended to be just add on for Fable 2. It feels like very very short version of Fable 2. Yes, there are some moments to enjoy and illustrators did terrific job again with the characters but you will enjoy for like 2-3 evenings and the ending is so not fun. And there is all these feeling in the second part of the game that developers rushed to finish it before the deadline. What a shame! And the price is more than major DVD release. Greed and corruption came to Albion... developers clearly made their choice and this is not the good one. If this game was branded as add-on to Fable 2 and the price was 15 pounds then it would be Ok. If you will read this review later on when the game become cheap and I am sure it will happen very quickly with this one, then buy it. But Fable 1 and 2 are much much more better. If you're fable fan you will be better of just replaying Fable 1 and 2. Really! Lionhead you suck!